SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17880, 28 September 1923, Page 3

SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE.

REPLY TO CRITICISM.

(IT ClSLS—russ iMOCUTIOK—COFTBB**.) (AUST*ALIAa AKD *.I. CA3U ASSOCIATION.) MELBOURNE, September 27. Bear-Admiral Sir William R. Creswcll describes Colonel Repington's comments on the Singapore Baso as crude generalities. He says the Admiralty, with the pick of the highest civil engineering talent, is quite unlikely to make glaring mistakes. Admiral Oresvell suggests that the truth is that, fa? from there being an inadequate depth of water, there are splendid channels with deep water. Even the sandbanks fine advantageous factors, sinoe they reduce the area to bo mined, and may be utilised very effectively in defence. [Colonel Repington, in a magazine article, doelarvs tiT.it the naval base site at Singapore does not provide the necessary area of well-protected water space mil- security and food for the industrialised population. He complains of the inadequate depth of water, especially in the western approaches, ■which are barred by sandbanks, while the new base is outside the existing defences, being thereby exposed to attack from the side of the mainland if a force were landed there. The only thing that can be said for the site is that it is the most unsuitable imaginable. It is a paradise only for eontractors.]